Man’s reach

It is an escalating hierarchy of concepts — Peter Drucker’s refinement of the prevailing understanding of efficiency, from merely doing things right to effectiveness or doing right things right. And now Covey’s emphasis is on doing great things. But why stop at greatness? “That a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/Or what’s a heaven for,” says Browning. In effect, to achieve the status of a great human being is no big deal for a creature, who was born a good human being to begin with. However exalted this greatness may be, if it is stuck with the threshold of human-hood with which it began life, it is still lolling in its comfort zone, stagnant as a malarial pool of slush.

For an entity like the human being, who has been proclaimed to be of a piece with divinity intrinsically, to stop at greatness is atavistically regressive. No less than three great stalwarts have come out loud and clear on the divine dimension of the human being. Christ — God made man in his own image; Prophet Mohammed — Quirruh min amri rabbi (the human soul issues forth from the Supreme Being); Krishna of the Gita — Mamaivanshu jeev loke (jeev or the individual with a soul housed in a body, is an inseparable aspect of Me).

Beyond the prophets lie the saints. Tulsidas’ identification: Ishwar ansh jeev avinashi (the micro-individual is of a piece with the Macro-Divine). Kabir’s charm — Kaahe ri nalini tu kumhilani/ Tere hi naal sarovarpaani/Jal mein utpati jal mein vaas/Jal mein nalini tor nivaas (Why, Oh Lily, should you wilt when water swirls around you?/You are born in water/Water is where you live/ In water is your eternal habitat).

Like the languishing lily, if having been born as human beings we are content to remain human, great or not so great, the possibility of sliding back into animality looms on the human horizon. For freezing at the human level is an indulgence Nature will not allow, since she abhors stagnation. Therefore, if reversion to animality is to be avoided, the human being has no other option except to explore his or her divine antecedents. The appeal of this adventure is ineffable; on the other hand remaining merely human is an option foreclosed for the human being.